30 years later, we have not forgotten

By YASMENA AL MULLA | Correspondent

Kuwait City: On August 2, 1990, people all over Kuwait woke up to a changed reality. Some were woken up by gunshots, while others were woken up by their neighbours’ screams. Although each person’s experience differs, most who experienced the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait felt both shock and fear.
“We were really surprised and shocked. All Kuwaitis call that day ‘Black Thursday’ because we were so sad you cannot explain the feeling with words,” Huda Al Medlej, author of Escaping the Invasion, told Gulf News.
Speaking to Gulf News, another Kuwaiti, Shareea Mohammed Rafie Marafie, said: “The first emotion I felt was panic and fear. What is an invasion? We are not used to it. We are a peaceful country.”
“The first emotion that came to my mind was that our life is shattered. We weren’t sure how our life was going to be in the next moment,” Savio Dias, an Indian national, told Gulf News.

Approximately 120,000 Iraqi troops and 700 tanks stormed into Kuwait on August 2, 1990

The morning of August 2

At around 2am on August 2, 1990, approximately 120,000 Iraqi troops and 700 tanks stormed into Kuwait from the north. “[Tens of thousands] of Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait, taking us totally by surprise. We did not know what to do,” explained Al Medlej. Within a few hours, the Iraqis reached Kuwait City, the capital, and set up a puppet regime called the “Provisional Free Government of Kuwait”. A statement by Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council said Saddam Hussein would turn Kuwait into “a graveyard for anyone who tried to commit aggression or was moved by the lust of invasion”. “Around 10am, the fire fighting planes flew above us at a low altitude and it was something we never experienced before,” Vartan Daghlian, a Lebanese national, told Gulf News.
“By the time Iraqi forces entered Kuwait City, I was already dressed for work. Once we got to the office, we came to know Iraq had invaded Kuwait. In the meantime, all bus services had been stopped, so we had to walk from Kuwait City to my home in Salwa. The walk was around one and a half hours,” Dias recollected. Marafie was also at work when she heard about the invasion. “Suddenly, my husband calls me and says come home right away. His sister had called him from abroad and told him she saw on CNN the troops had arrived at the Kuwaiti border ‘so get everything in order’.” The invasion came as a surprise to many as Kuwait was on relatively good terms with Iraq. Saddam justified the war by accusing Kuwait of reducing the price of oil by producing more than it had been allocated. 

At that point there were 1.2 million expats living in Kuwait, majority of whom fled in the first month of the invasion.

“My emotions, nobody can explain them. It was really heavy and really dark, especially when it comes from a neighbouring country,” said Al Medlej. Noorah Alhasan, a Kuwaiti national, recalled, “I woke up earlier than usual and my entire family was still asleep. I remember looking out the window and seeing a pack of dogs running in the street. As a 5-year-old, I knew something was going on.”
Early accounts report that around 200 people were killed on the first day of combat alone. The Kuwaiti forces, a total of 20,000 troops at that time, were overwhelmed and were defeated within two days. Those that were not killed in combat fled to neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The great escape

The Emir of Kuwait at that time, Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, fled to Saudi Arabia on August 2, along with other members of the royal family. “We had strong faith, we all used to say ‘when the lawful ones return’ ... meaning when the government comes back. We didn’t believe for a moment that Kuwait was gone,” Marafie said. It has been reported that throughout the seven-month invasion, 800,000 citizens fled the country or were stuck abroad.
Of those, around 150,000 Kuwaitis fled to Saudi Arabia. Al Medlej was amongst those Kuwaitis that left Kuwait, fearing for her family’s safety and security.

Almost every Kuwaiti and expat has a story about a family member or close relative that was captured by the Iraqis.

“What happened during our journey through the desert, it was the most horrible thing ever. It was so hot and there was no water, I almost lost my son. He was seven months old,” Al Medlej said. “As a mother at that time, all you just want is for your son to survive.”
At that point there were 1.2 million expats living in Kuwait, majority of whom fled in the first month of the invasion. “Initially we decided not to leave Kuwait because back home, in India, it was not a good situation. But after two months, around 90 per cent of the people [expats] had already left and so we had to leave, we had no choice,” Dias said.
Daghlian had to leave as well, but only for a short period of time, as he had to accompany his mother back to Syria. Although Daghlian had a similar experience to Dias as they were forced to leave through Iraq, he decided to come back to Kuwait to be with the rest of his family and check on their belongings. “They told me I cannot come back until I took a visa from the Iraqi embassy,” explained Daghlian.

Only around 100,000 Kuwaitis were left in the country.

“My husband’s family kept telling us to go [to Iraq] ... they wanted us to leave Kuwait because they knew what the regime was capable of doing. He [Saddam] will hurt you, he will burn you, you don’t know what he is capable of, we do,” explained Marafie.
Marafie’s husband fled Iraq during the reign of the Baathist regime during the 1970s. He has been living in Kuwait ever since. She went on to add, “But I did not want to leave my country. I wanted to die in Kuwait. Whatever is going to happen to me will happen. No way I would have left,” explained Marafie. “My grandmother, who we were living with, refused to leave so we ended up staying for the entirety of the invasion,” Alhasan said.

Prisoners of War

According to the National Committee of Missing and POWs Affairs (NCMPA), as a result of the invasion there were around 605 people missing. Of those, the bodies of 246 were found and identified.
The committee, established in 1991, has reported that for every 1,000 Kuwaitis, one was held as a POW. Asrar Al Qabandi was amongst those who were taken by the Iraqis.
Al Qabandi is remembered and celebrated by Kuwaitis as she played a significant role as a member of the Kuwaiti resistance. She sent photos and stories to the international media so that the world could see what Kuwaitis were going through at the hands of the Iraqi troops. In addition, she would send regular updates to the Kuwaiti government headquarters in Saudi Arabia detailing the conditions inside the country.
One of Marafie’s relatives met a similar fate to Al Qabanadi’s. She went on to explain that, “Everybody knows about Sameera Marafie, she is a prisoner of war, she was taken during the first few months. She was part of the resistance, so they took her and they moved from one detention centre to another. And to this day we don’t know where she is.”
While not all those detained by the Iraqis became POWs, almost every Kuwaiti and expat has a story about a family member or close relative that was captured by the Iraqis.“The soldiers barged into our house and they took away my father and uncle. I have a flashback memory of just waiting for my father to walk back in,” Alhasan explained. Her father and uncle ended up coming back home after a few days.
“My brother took the car and was going to the cooperative society (supermarket), they took his car and took him too. We didn’t know where he was being held. We went to many police stations and we finally found he was being held in a big garden with many other people,” explained Dias. He went on to note that “we never saw the car again. They stopped him just to steal the car and then they just left him there.”

Day to day life

On August 6, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution denouncing the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Two days later, on August 8, the UNSC unanimously passed resolution 662 calling for the ‘immediate and unconditional’ withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
“It was seven long months that we really had to endure but thankfully the United Nations and many countries helped us during this tragic event,” Al Medlej said. On August 8, Iraq announced a formal annexation of Kuwait.
They took over several key entities from governmental offices to police stations. “The 1st floor of our building was a soldier centre. Whoever went into the building [the Iraqis] had to check their ID and ask what they were doing because they were afraid of the resistance,” Daghlian explained. Daghlian went on to point out that “the police station in front of the building was taken over by the Iraqis and became a centre for the officers. They were afraid that somebody might go to the higher floors and do something to the station, that’s why they were centered there.”
Marafie’s neighbours were part of the resistance and so the Iraqi forces “took one of the boys, blindfolded him and held a gun to his head,” she said, adding, “Then they used to take them in a pick up truck and leave. What terrified us the most is that they might have killed them. We didn’t know what used to happen.”
The UNSC passed a resolution on November 29 that authorised the use of force against the Iraqis if they did not withdraw by January 15, 1991. Then on January 17 Operation Desert Storm, by a coalition of 39 countries, was launched with authorisation from the UNSC. Approximately 700,000 troops from 28 countries were involved, majority of which were US military personnel, totalling 425,000 troops.
The coalition spearheaded by the United States launched an air campaign which ended on February 28, a day after Kuwait was liberated. A fierce aerial bombing campaign was launched by the allied forces to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait. Marafie recalled, “During that period of fierce attacks, the country smelt like destruction, it was a weird smell, it didn’t smell like Kuwait.”
“The invasion was one hell of an experience. May God never let it happen to anybody because it is something very awful and scary,” Daghlian said. By the end of the seven months, around 1,000 Kuwaitis had been killed. Several accounts, by both Kuwaitis and expats, pointed to the aggression that Iraqi troops used against civilians.
“We couldn’t go out because we didn’t know what they [Iraqis] would do because they were very scary people. We didn’t leave the house much. Even when we used to go to the cooperative (supermarket) they used to check the cars and our ID cards. They used to bring all the people out of the car. A lot of harassment was going on,” Dias pointed out.
“From Surra to Salwa, I used to pass by around 7 checkpoints. At every checkpoint I used to put my hand on my heart because in any moment they can bother you, without you knowing,” explained Marafie. “It was a very dramatic period but we survived and we are here to tell the stories to our children and the generations to come,” Al Medlej said.

-Al Medlej is a Kuwaiti national and a mother of four.
-Marafie is a Kuwaiti national, married to an Iraqi.
-Al Hasan was born and raised in Kuwait, but has been residing in the United States for the past 5 years.
-Dias has been living in Kuwait for 38 years.
-Daghlian was born and raised in Kuwait. He was 23 years old at the time of the invasion.

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